ON the eve of his return to Ireland from his whistle-stop tour of EU capitals, the Taoiseach has repeated that Ireland "will definitely be a member" of the EMU.
Speaking last night in Copenhagen, Mr Bruton said he believed EMU was an unstoppable process - "The political will and commitment exist". Although the decision as to which countries would qualify remained to be settled, "we now have basically all the details worked out" in relation to a legal framework.
He also reiterated the importance of producing an anti-drugs package during Ireland's presidency, as well as a draft text of a new EU treaty.
Mr Bruton returns to Ireland tonight from a three-day tour as President of the EU Council of Ministers to Lisbon, Madrid, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Luxembourg and Rome. He is scheduled to conduct the final round of visits to European capitals shortly with visits to Belgium, France, Britain and Germany.
Asked yesterday to state the "crowning glory" of the Irish presidency, the Taoiseach said: "We're going to put together a very good package on drugs and crime". Much work had already been completed under the chairmanship of the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, and this would "come out" of the Dublin summit next month.
"That was the issue we set as our priority, to show that Europe could respond to the immediate problem that its citizens have with crime, and I think we will achieve that," he added.
The Irish presidency would also be presenting a new draft of the treaty to replace the Maastricht accord. This would form the basis on which Europe would enlarge from 15 to as many as 25 member-states.
Reuter adds: Mr Bruton also said yesterday in Sweden that it would be preferable if Sweden entered Europe's Exchange Rate Mechanism, but his view was that it might qualify anyway for EMU starting in 1999.
Asked at a news conference whether Sweden could do so without first entering the ERM, Mr Bruton said: "I would imagine without any authority of office that if Sweden wanted to enter the single currency Euro in 1998, and economic fundamentals are on track there would be a problem."
He said his views were those of "an intelligent layman".